Will calling for peace be considered extremism?
JVL Introduction
This short statement by the six organisations that have been organising the national marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza highlights serious concerns about the government’s redefinition of extremism. We share this deep concern that this will do nothing to defend democracy and everything to reduce democratic engagement and our rights, not least to Freedom of Expression and our right to dissent.
It is vital that we resist this assault on our freedoms and we note that already Muslim Groups have been included in the examples. We believe that this is part of a wider crackdown on our freedom and human rights and note, for example, the disproportionate targeting of Muslim school and college students under the Prevent programme. We also note the imposition of the IHRA “working definition” of antisemitism and how these edicts are too often interpreted to make support for Palestine a cause for investigation compared with, for example, Ukraine or Israel. What will be next? Will support for Russia or China also be considered extreme? Will support for punishing capitalist exploitation (eg in the Congo) be considered extremist or, much more likely, will our opposition to it be considered extreme? When those of us calling for an end to killing are called extremists and those who continue to support Israel’s actions are considered the mainstream, we can easily imagine what the future could hold.
LL
This article was originally published by Palestine Solidarity Campaign website on Thu 14 Mar 2024. Read the original here.
Coalition response to Michael Gove’s statement in Parliament
As the coalition of groups who have been organising the national marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, we condemn Michael Gove’s statement today. His redefinition of extremism, framed as a defence of democracy, is in reality an assault on core democratic freedoms, seeking to silence dissenting voices. His statement should cause alarm to everyone truly committed to upholding democracy, and the fundamental right to legitimately campaign to change government policy.
The government has used the protests we have organised in response to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people as a core rationale for the need to redefine extremism. Successive government minsters and pro-Israel voices have attempted to demonise those protesting as hatemongers, Islamist mobs and antisemites. The reality is that, as the police themselves have publicly affirmed, the marches have been overwhelmingly peaceful and attended by a broad cross section of British society, young and old, of all faiths and none.
It is the government, while claiming to champion democracy, that is eroding rights we are marching to protect – democratic rights at home and respect for international law globally. It is the government that is pursuing an Islamophobic agenda which seeks to confine the Muslim community to the margins of democratic society.
It is a government which has run roughshod over the rule of law, illegally proroguing parliament, illegally planning to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and whose MPs have deliberately exacerbated racism and Islamophobia. It should stand charged of falling foul of its own definition of extremism.
We reject the description of members of our coalition as extremists who cause division and harm to the Muslim community. No one should take lessons in what is in the interests of Muslims in Britain from a man with a track record of support for anti-Muslim policies, associations and discourse.
We call upon all political parties to condemn Gove’s statement and resist the government’s plans. We are united as a coalition and will not allow Gove’s intervention to distract us from standing in solidarity with a people confronting genocide, ethnic cleansing, occupation and apartheid. We call upon all of those who support us in these aims, and uphold the right to protest, to join us in our next national march in London on March 30th.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestinian Forum in Britain
Friends of Al-Aqsa
Stop the War Coalition
Muslim Association of Britain
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The irony is that if anything is gonna make extremists of people, it’s Britain’s foreign policy!
And isn’t it odd how it’s now been three months and – as far as I’m aware – we’ve not heard a dickybird about the seven people who were arrested in December in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands over ‘suspected terrorism plots’. I think we can probably safely assume that there were no plots, and the seven people arrested were falsely accused, and that none of them – as Hamas said – were members of Hamas. The only ‘plot’ was that of the PTB in said countries and Israel to further demonise Hamas on the one hand, and create fear on the other, especially amongst Jews in Europe.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/copenhagen-police-danish-intelligence-make-arrests-suspicion-preparations-attack-2023-12-14/
Will be there on March 30th and hoping our march is the biggest yet. When choosing images I hope that our reports will show the myriad brilliant home-made statements rather than (or at least as much as) national flags and pre-printed party placards. The inventive home-made words and images are a political education in themselves.
I would personally also welcome some accurate figures of the numbers of people on our marches. Last time the numbers were so huge that people were still crossing Vauxhall Bridge four hours after the start of the rally. This did not feel smaller than the huge march of 2003, but it would be useful to know the reality.
In relation to the threat to democracy B/S, Sunak and Co were making a big deal about Mike Freer standing down at the next GE because of death threats he has received, and the arson attack on his constituency office, which the MP said was the last straw:
‘Hate faced by MP Mike Freer is attack on democracy, says Downing Street’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68167540
Like most people, I was shocked that someone would do such a thing, and the arson attack was of course being linked to his support for Israel. But lo and behold, in the process of doing a search to see if anyone has been charged (the last I’d heard a man and a woman had been arrested in connection with the arson attack), I came across a BBC News article from March 5th in which it says the following:
A man has admitted setting fire to a shed at Conservative MP Mike Freer’s constituency office, but denied his actions were politically motivated.
The defendant was also charged over another arson attack at a nearby property on the same night.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68481790
So not only was there a separate incident, but Harwood actually set fire to a shed (presumably at the back of the office) and NOT Freer’s actual office. I think we may very well be being played and deceived. As for the death threats, in the first article I linked to above it quotes Lindsay Hoyle as saying the following:
“But that is the big challenge at the moment. It really is a threat. We all get death threats, but Mike really has been targeted,” he added.
Well if THAT’s the case (that all MPs get death threats), how come hardly any of the people who make these death threats ever gets tracked down and caught? Are they all so clever that they know how to avoid being caught?!
Now I wonder who would know how to do THAT!!